


Life Could Be A Dream

by izzymm2018



Category: Original Work
Genre: Daydreaming, Future Fic, Gen, London
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 20:56:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14505324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izzymm2018/pseuds/izzymm2018
Summary: In London in the year 2060, citizens live in constant fear of the Red Order, a merciless militia group lead by the ruthless Roscoe Steele. The Red Order execute the old, the sick, or injured, as they deem these three categories "weak".However, despite the terror-filled world in which she lives in, 8-year-old Marnie yearns to escape to a fantasy world of her own. But it's hard when danger could be lurking right around the corner....





	Life Could Be A Dream

**Author's Note:**

> So in my English class, we read "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", and for an assignment we were tasked with writing a short story with events similar to what happens in "Walter Mitty". 
> 
> This is basically my English homework I'm sharing with y'all xD
> 
> Well, hope you like it!! :)

It was quiet. Too quiet. Judging by the silence that persisted in the city, there hadn’t been an execution yet. It was an eerie silence, however. It seemed as if nobody wanted to exit their homes, for fear of a horrific thing happening to them. In all the neighborhoods of London - Marylebone, Covent Garden, Soho, Kensington, Greenwich, Paddington, etc. – all was silent. 

The Red Order hadn’t decided to make any killings today, not yet at least. They would, though, later. They always did. In London, you must appear strong. For if you don’t, your death would be guaranteed by the Red Order, a ruthless group of sadistic war dogs. They executed anyone they deemed “weak”, and the leader of the Order, Roscoe Steele, lived by a cruel, “every man for himself” code. They never ceased to kill the old, the sick, or the disabled; with it not mattering how old the victim was when it came to the latter two. 

In Marylebone, on North Gower Street, everyone was asleep in little Marnie’s flat. Everyone, that is, except for Marnie herself. It was early, but she couldn’t seem to get herself to sleep. 8-year-old Marnie knew the world she lived in was full of danger; her mother Maeve and father Geoff never ceased to remind her and her siblings, 12-year-old Asher and 16-year-old Nollie, about the risks of their world and what would happen if they appeared “weak”. They took every chance to make sure they would not get sick, and were careful to not get injured, but unfortunately, death would be inevitable; once an individual turned 80-years-old, they would be publicly executed.

Though these were very real fears that every family in London thought about on a daily basis, Marnie didn’t let it bother her. For an 8-year-old, she was incredibly optimistic about everything around her, unlike her ever-cautious parents. 

Marnie decided that she wanted to get some fresh air. So, quickly and quietly, without waking her family, she got dressed and slowly unlocked the door and left the flat. Even though it was early, it was light enough out that Marnie could see where she was going; it was chilly out too, but Marnie had a sufficient jumper and scarf on, and swampers on her feet so as to keep her feet efficiently warm.

Everything seemed normal out, until Marnie heard a growling sound behind her. She turned around, and running at top speed behind her, was an animal. It was a cat, a large cat, and judging by the books Marnie had read about animals, it looked to be a cheetah. It whizzed past her and ran ahead, down the empty street. Something inside Marnie compelled her to follow it, and without thinking, her feet were moving, and soon, she was running at an alarmingly fast speed. 

It was almost unreal how she was going. She was going so fast, that eventually, she was running right next to the cheetah. All of a sudden, the world around her changed. The buildings turned into gigantic acacia trees, and the streets and pavement turned into the grasses of an African savannah. The surroundings around her were breathtaking. As she ran, to her left, giraffes were happily grazing from the trees, and to her right, at a watering hole, animals of every kind; zebras, antelope, elephants, rhinoceroses, and even a few lions, were drinking from the large pond. 

Marnie marveled at how every animal could come together at the watering hole and be at peace with one another. This was very different from her own world, as people were categorized by being “weak”, or “strong”. As Marnie looked ahead of the cheetah, she could see they were coming up to a strange rock formation. Swiftly, in one jump, the cheetah landed on top of the rock. Marnie, using all of her might, jumped, flying to the top of the rock. 

As she looked down at the vast grasslands below her, she marveled at the vast biodiversity of the ecosystem below her. A herd of zebras was running across the savannah, and elephants were gathered around the large watering hole before them. A strong wind blew, caressing Marnie’s face like a veil. Something came over her, and suddenly, she jumped off of the rock. She landed safely, but when she looked up, she was not in Africa anymore. She was on the ground. ‘Oh, bugger’, she thought, ‘it was just another daydream.’ She had been standing on a dumpster the whole time, instead of the rock that she had previously been standing on with the cheetah. Marnie decided to walk on. She climbed a long, long ladder onto a roof of one of the buildings, relishing the crisp air. She suddenly heard a screeching sound above her, and jumped.

She was relieved to see it was only a falcon, gliding in the air with strong wings. Marnie loved falcons. They were “birds of prey”, which is what she had read in one of her books. Marnie sometimes wished she was a falcon; she sometimes wished she could just fly away from her constricting family, but of course, that would be impossible. Or was it?

Marnie looked down at her arms, and gasped in awe when she discovered that she was starting to grow feathers. They spread all up and down her arms and grew into enormous wings. Marnie felt the sudden urge to fly, and with all the strength her small body allowed, she flung herself off of the rooftop. Marnie fell, and fell, and fell, until the concrete below her vanished, and turned into a forest floor. Before she could hit the ground however, Marnie spread out her wings, and shot to the sky. She was flying! Oh, what a joyous feeling this was! ‘This was even better than the dream about the cheetah!’, she thought to herself. She dove and somersaulted in the air, and the breeze ruffled her feathers every which way. She suddenly spotted the falcon from before, and flew over to accompany him. Together, they soared through the skies, predators of the air. 

Eventually, the falcon found a large evergreen tree to land on, and Marnie followed suit. However, as soon as she landed, it happened again. The forest around her vanished, and Marnie realized she was still on the same rooftop she had ended up on before, and that she had had, yet again, another daydream. Marnie started getting annoyed. ‘Why can’t the dreams simply be real?’, she angrily thought to herself. Deciding that it was probably best she head back home, Marnie climbed down the ladder from the rooftop, and back onto solid ground. Marnie walked sullenly down the streets, bored with her current situation. She had been having too much fun in her daydreams, and now she was back in her own ordinary, boring world. As she walked down the sidewalk, Marnie spotted a pet store on the other side of the street. Curious, she headed over to take a closer look. On the glass windows of the shop were paintings of animals. There was a dog here and a cat there, but what really caught Marnie’s attention, was a beautiful multicolored fish. It looked like a tropical fish, like one of those fish you would see if you were in the Caribbean. There were bubbles floating out of the fish’s mouth. 

Marnie sighed, but jumped back, startled by what had just happened. Slowly, she sighed again, and was amazed to find that bubbles were floating out of her mouth. Marnie looked at her reflection in the mirror, and almost screamed. She had grown gills on her neck! She looked behind her, and was in awe at what she was looking at. What she observed was a vast, blue ocean, and she was inside of it! Amazingly, Marnie realized she could breathe underwater, and looked down at her feet, which were gone, and instead, a long, shiny blue tail was in the place of her legs. 

Delighted, Marnie realized she had become a mermaid, just like in that old cartoon movie she had watched as a toddler, The Little Mermaid. With a surge of excitement, she pushed away with her tail, and she was off! She swam through a colorful coral reef, past swarms and swarms of fish, each and every one a different color that the whole plethora of them looked like a rainbow. In one part of the reef, dolphins were playfully swimming about the coral, while in another part of the reef, a sea turtle lazily floated about. Marnie was in heaven. She had never seen so much beautiful fish before. She shot up to the surface, and jumped for joy! Marnie swam back to the reef, but all of a sudden, all of the fish were gone. The dolphins had vanished and the sea turtle was nowhere to be seen. Marnie was confused. Where did everyone go? However she froze when she heard a low rumble behind her. She slowly turned, and was horrified to find a shark had made its way to the reef.

Without hesitation, Marnie swam away as fast as her tail could take her. As she swam, the ocean around her disappeared, her gills vanished, and her tail suddenly turned into a pair of human legs. Marnie was running, very fast actually, but why? She turned around, and then she saw why. Soldiers of the Red Order had spotted her, and were chasing after her. “Hey! Hey you! Stop!” One of the soldiers shouted at her. This only motivated Marnie to run even faster. She ran and ran back in the direction of her flat. She was almost there. She could see the building just a small distance away. Suddenly Marnie tripped, and a pain shot through her right leg. 

She screamed and whimpered. The pain was like someone had stabbed her, and she found that she couldn’t move her leg at all, and when she tried to it only caused more pain. Marnie started crying in terror. She had broken her leg. The pain was excruciating and she looked over to see the same soldier slowly walking towards her, accompanied by two other soldiers. Marnie knew what was bound to happen. She had gotten injured, and everyone knew that the Red Order never cared for the injured. The soldier kneeled by her and motioned for the two others to come closer. 

“She’s injured.” One of them said. “Don’t you think I know that?” The leader answered back gruffly. “Her leg is broken. What are we going to do about it?” The third soldier asked uncertainly. The leader looked down at Marnie’s little tear-streaked face, and almost gave in to mercy, but he could not disobey Steele. “What we always do, I supposed.” He suddenly picked her up underneath both of her arms, and started walking, dragging her like she was a ragdoll. Marnie screamed and kicked with her left leg, trying to get away, her tears blurring her vision, but this only strengthened the soldier’s grip on her. “Ajax. She’s only a child.” The second soldier tried to intervene.  
Ajax turned back with an ashen look on his face. “That still does not change the law. We cannot have another weak link break the chain, and we certainly cannot disobey Roscoe.” Without another word, he turned around and started walking again. In that moment, Marnie fully realized the horrors of the world in which she lived in, and with heartbreak, accepted her fate, and came to the conclusion that her daydreams could not save her anymore.


End file.
